The story of bottled water.

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ 

Recommend watching :)

Photo journey along the Waihou river

The Blue Spring

The water here is very clear.

clear as, there's a little fish in this photo, just chillin.

Rushing through a tight spot.

The first of the non-fenced off tributaries down stream from the spring. The first time we visited, there were cows in this stream. It's such a shame too, because all along the banks further upstream near the spring they've made a huge effort - it's fenced off and there banks are planted up to catch any run off...
and then there's this.

Tributary joining the river.

Second sample taken from this point.

Another sample point

Bridge at Te Aroha

Me - in the river, scum sampling.

This is the same river, as the beautiful blue shots - this is much closer to reaching the sea, having gone through acres of farmland and being joined by tributaries polluted by the tailings from the old Tui Mine

Scum joining the river from another tributary, final sample from near this point.

and just FTR: My water archive- every sample recieved in 2010.

First look at the Waihou Set

Putting samples in the shelves - geographically ordered by region.

Northland, Auckland and Coramandel samples (Top to bottom)

Making shelves. AKA. Three RSI inducing weeks of my life

(photos on my phone, sorry for poor quality)

 I Started out with a big length of untreated radiata pine, which was then machined into 6mm thick slats, which I routed to give a bullnose edge. This gives them a slimmer appearance, whilst maintaining structural integrity of the 6mm thickness.

I then experimented with aesthetics - comparing the slotted through version with the on top version - it became obvious that the wood would take too much of the vial out of the equation - so I set about drilling 1100 grooves using a 5/8ths drill bit for the vials to slot into (20 shelves, 2 back ups)  I also would have preferred to keep the wood natural, as it was quite beautiful, but experiments showed that the vials just absorbed the colours/texture of the wood, and this is about displaying water - so the final product needed painting.

Experiments with wire suspension failed, so I had to look at other alternatives - eventually deciding on a slotted shelf option:

Setting up for routing- required lots of custom bracing/tracks. I had lots of help from the wonderful Lee Elliot during this process. He told me after that the possibility of causing an 'irreparable fuck up' during routing was very high - and that I hadn't was really good. I'm glad he only told me afterward!

Uprights - alternating sides grooved - apparently this way is stronger than doing it all on one side, and reduces bow in the upright.

 Putting the first slat in. A couple developed  hairline fractures due to the tightness of the joint.

Every other slat in place

 Assembled

 Painted with a few vials slotted in to see final effect. (many hours involved in painting also)
Still haven't quite worked out suspension- but pretty close.

Generally I'm pleased. I think it's gonna look great once I get the 1000 vials in there.

Farm Pond (Manawatu) - still and agitated

Trials

164 !

At my residence, I currently have 164 samples!!! I know of at least 10 more on their way in the post currently - so very close to having 200 - which would be incredible.
South Island still very underrepresented...! Very little time left now, so if you're following this and have been meaning to get those samples sent off, now would be a good time!
Have also been working on finalising layout for the memory of water series - think I am going to use them to map out where they are from :) If you sent me a sample but haven't sent a photo through, and you'd like your portrait included, now would be the time to send it to me! (h2ospectrum@gmail.com)
I am a bit behind on the graphite portraits. Have done Dug Stuart, Hannah Wilson, Katie Dent, Emma Crawford and Alex Hitchcock's recently. Still have another 5-10 to do, but as these will probably not be part of the final display they are slightly lower priority currently.
Am also trying to work out how to get mechanisms that will slowly rotate single samples... if I can figure this out for a series I'll be very very happy. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Samples from Napier

Recieved a couple of samples from Napier/Hastings this morning! That area is on the map - although still only 3 from there; other underrepresented areas in North Island: Taranaki, Wairarapa, Gisborne (NONE)
South Island: anywhere that's not: Mid Canterbury i.e Christchurch

Press cutting from Wanganui Chronicle (I think)

(click for larger version)

Got this cutting in the mail today, a family friend in Whanganui posted it up to me. It looks like the Chron. did publish a story! I was a 'joint' winner, not the solo winner of the $10,000, but most of the information in here is pretty accurate. My indicator paper was dyed not rubbed, but what the hey - publicity is publicity.  The other two winners were Heidi Brickell and Toby Raine.

Samples from Shelley McMurtrie

Big set of samples arrived this morning courtesy of Shelley McMurtrie (an Aquatic Scientist with EOS Ecology)

Just over a month to go... Get those samples in!! If you're in the 'naki, Gisborne, Napier/Hastings, or anywhere in South Island (although CHCH is pretty well covered), I'd love to get samples from your region ASAP!

Also in the process of putting together an artist book about this project. If you've got something you'd like to be considered for inclusion, or know someone who would, please flick me an email at h2ospectrum@gmail.com

Art Merges with Science

Thanks to Kevin Collier, President of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society, for featuring my project on their website (here).

To those who have followed the link over, thank you! 

If you want to send samples, please collect them in whatever containers you have available; I'll put them into vials once they arrive here. Flick me an email on h2ospectrum@gmail.com to get the postal address. :)

Cut off for recieving samples (due to academic deadlines) is September 17th 2010.

Manawatu River update

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/08/09/ab28a64cdb24

Photographing Vials

I've been playing about with photographing the vials in a light tent I made (with lots of instructions from Em Davidson, who is the photo queen). This is a photo of one of her vials. I'm not super good with photography - being very much a point and shoot slut a lot of the time, so I'm very pleased with this. Slightly colour corrected in Photoshop. Link to Em's Blog here. 

 a different sample. Clearly I've chosen to display these because they are visually interesting, but all the samples are quite different. 

 this sample has been shaken before being photgraphed. 

As always, works in progress. 

"deeply trippy" for the win...

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/news/template/news_item.jsp?cid=300729

NZ post competition

http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/Personal/Competitions/WarmUpSomeonesWinter

Just incase anyone needed an extra motivator to send me samples ;)

2010 Joint Winner: Henrietta and Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour Scholarship

 

Statement:

The past decade has seen an increasing awareness of climate change and environmental pressures the growing global population is inflicting on natural resources. Recently scientists have expressed frustration over the difficulty of communicating environmental issues to the public (Bunting), and I believe that art has the capacity to fill a vital intermediary role. This series of water colours is part of my wider body of work regarding New Zealand freshwater, as a continuation of my ongoing exploration of global environmental and concomitant societal issues.

Water is a precious resource which we often take for granted in New Zealand. We are lucky to still have pristine wild streams and rivers, but Freshwater Ecologists have recently drawn attention to alarming statistics for a country which proclaims to be 100% pure. Notably, the Manawatu river recently topped an international survey of the Western World’s most polluted (by dissolved oxygen count)(Cawthron Institute qtd in Burns & Morgan) and up to 90% of our lowland rivers reportedly no longer suitable for swimming.

Part of my research practice has involved facilitating the collection of a wide range of freshwater samples from across New Zealand via the internet. These water colours are created from these sources; the water sample is used on a homemade (red cabbage) indicator paper, to paint a portrait of the person that sent it. Depending on the acidity/alkalinity of the water sample, the paper changes colour. A green tinge indicates alkalinity; the more blue/violet tinge suggests acidity, with a range in between. The images fade slowly in the light; illustrating our explicit connection with, and dependence on water. In the words of Bruno Latour:

"Air, water, land, all of those were present before in the background: now they are explicitated because we slowly come to realize that they might disappear —and we with them"(Latour 3)



Bunting, Madeleine. "Art and Climate." RSA Arts and Ecology Magazine (2010). <http://www.artsandecology.org.uk/magazine/features/madeleine-bunting>

Burns, Kelly, and Jon Morgan. "Manawatu River 'among Worst in the West' " Dominon Post on Stuff.co.nz (2009). November 26 <http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3097575/Manawatu-River-among-worst-in-the-West>.

Latour, B. "A Plea for Earthly Sciences." Bruno Latour (2007). April.<http://www.bruno-latour.fr/articles/article/102-BSA-GB>

South Island

22/150... !!! please, if you're in the South Island - or know anyone that is, share this project and send samples!

Deadline for samples

The deadline for samples is September 17th at latest, which is just under 8 weeks away!!
If you haven't sent samples yet, please, when the weather is clear, nip out and get a couple!

Sitting about the 150 mark for samples so far - would like to be at 400 by the deadline ideally, so tell everyone you know. I can be reached at h2ospectrum@gmail.com

The facebook group had a surge of members over the last few weeks, after Nicole Bennik's article
and is now at 112 members, around 40-50 of which have sent samples. Have had massive support from the Ecology crew at Massey University, thanks guys, you rock!


Setting the deadline mid September will give me a couple of weeks to finalise the display of them. Have been discussing various options, looking at possibly a three dimensional form - either something conical or of historical significance. My brother has been working on hooking up a motor to agitate the samples so the can be seen in suspended form.

Will update area totals shortly, but the map is still pretty accurate - Wellington Region has jumped up into the 20+ category, thanks to Em Davidson and Mac Birrell, and a few of the South Island sites have gone from red (0) to the lightest blue (still less than 5 in a region). Wairarapa has now a couple of samples, Gisborne area has 1 - the Naki is still not on the board, but is the only remaining region in the North Island to not have any samples. South Island has graduated into double figures, but with the North Island over 100 - definitely looking to get as many more South Island samples as possible in the coming weeks!

Email h2ospectrum@gmail.com for the postal address to send samples.
Thanks again to everyone who has made this project possible!

Also, see Juilet Larken's post on collecting Southland Samples here:

http://julietlarkin.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/water-samples-collected-for-amelias-water-art-installation/

Maps of samples colour coded by number collected.

Of 110 samples I only have 4 from the South Island! 

As you can seek, there are also areas in the North Isalnd that I have no samples from so far.

Any samples from the light blue as well as the red areas would be greatly appreciated!

100 samples!

Two wonderful mornings brought two sets of 6 and 7 samples from Dug Stuart and Rachel Turner to my door.
Dug's set from the Waikato: The three on the right are from the Waikato river, before, mid and after hamilton. It is interesting that you can visibly see the difference between them.

And Rachels set from Turangi-Rotorua

With a set of 6 that I brought back from Whanganui from my brother, Alex Hitchcock, that takes the total up so far to 110 samples!!! Which I think is pretty awesome for a couple of months.

The downside: I still only have 4 samples from the south island, out of 110!!!
I realised also, that the scale of what I create with the samples is such that if I do 6 vials at 5mL each from each sample, I still need roughly 400 samples to get me to the 2400 vials needed to make something 1.5m high...So... send links to all you know! I've got another couple of months collecting tops!

Many thanks to all that have contributed so far.
Amelia